Basic Technique - Mike Way

2007 Coaching Conference - "the Art of Coaching"

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Squash
• technique
• forehand
• backhand
• mike
• way

[nwhow]

I coached junior squash some years ago and the simplest way I found to explain the basic swing was for the forehand to imagine skipping a flat stone on water. The stone won't skip unless you snap your wrist and unlike tennis a squash forehand lacks power if there is no wrist snap. For the backhand I used the analogy of throwing a frisbee, if you do not snap your wrist correctly the frisbee will just float and similarly a backhand squash shot will just balloon.

[sarantakis]

The principles for sqush and tennis swings are totally different.

[hongshongavin]

this would be gr8 if u could hear him

[zyxdonna]

@nwhow I mentioned these analogies last night to someone at the squash club, a much more advanced player than myself, and she told me that wrist snap is NOT good technique and can cause injuries. Instead she said to imagine swinging a hammer for the forehand shot. Any thoughts on this? I was actually finding that wrist snap was helping a lot and was disappointed to hear her say it's not good.

[Domin8tor1000]

@cscoetzee very good spot on with the skipping of the stone. I love how simple it is to teach with that analogy everyone can understand although once you get to professional it is all so technical

[cscoetzee]

@nwhow : Skipping stone is correct analogy for forehand, throwing frisbee is WRONG analogy for backhand. Throwing a frisbee is a 'slapping' action that requires the wrist to bend or unbreak before the throw, whereas in squash the idea is to keep the wrist cocked al the way through so that foream rotation occurs naturally. It is the ROTATION OF THE FOREARM and the ANGLE OF THE WRIST that generates rpower and precision automatically.

[dvdsmlprstylr]

I found the didgeridoo bit more interesting

[starlet1]

I can't hear anything you are saying...

[gknix]

You really would get the most out of it if you have been playing squash to begin with. I've worked with Mike before couple of times and he is an excellent coach, not to mention, he was Jonathan Power's coach. Ofcourse there are variations to this and this is only his perspective, but a lot of what he saids is very useful if you take your time to change it.

[mrbobevans]

@Irifalchen My city, Louisville, KY USA, has arguably the best public park system in the US. We have public tennis courts all over the city. I played tennis with a guy who was from Pennsylvania and lived in Florida who said he has never seen a city with tennis access like Louisville. My city has four distinctive seasons (Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer). There are several indoor facilities that are reasonable in price. Louisville is an awesome city as it is so centrally located.

[Irifalchen]

@mrbobevans Well for me, I make the most use of my closest available resources, my university gym has four singles softball courts, but yes, the cost of joining clubs for sports is high no matter where you go. There's this grass-court tennis court (singular btw) in Toronto, where the membership fee 1500, initiation fee 500, and the court is not guaranteed as playable based on weather. I mean how ridiculous is that!